Out of the Box Solutions
One of the things that new clients almost always ask me before our first session is, “Should I buy any containers before you come?” I assure them that they most likely already own things that we can reuse for organizing. Plastic containers with no matching lids, empty shoe boxes, egg containers, and surplus coffee mugs have all done their duty in this category.
I’m a big believer in using what you already have. I’ve even written three blog posts on that topic. (See most recently Use What You Have, Part 3.) But when a particular household dilemma presented itself earlier this year, it wasn’t clear that I had anything in my home that could be the solution. It turns out I did.
As you know, we got a new dog back in May. Brandy just loves to play fetch. She keeps bringing over a stuffed toy or a ball and drops it at our feet so that we can throw it. This buys us about 20 seconds of peace before she brings it back again and the cycle repeats.
My home office is in the corner of the living room, and I have two decorative file cabinets in another corner. Occasionally Brandy’s toy or ball ends up underneath one of the file cabinets, and she whines until I retrieve it, which usually requires a ruler and the light from my iPhone. A few months ago, I saw Brandy push her toy under the file cabinet and then start whining. I realized that this was a cheap ploy for my attention.
I mentioned this situation to our dog trainer. She suggested that we put some cardboard under the cabinets to block that space. I cut up the next Amazon box I received, and the next time the trainer was there, we tried some solutions. But they weren’t particularly effective. I started thinking about what we owned that would work better.
One day I finished a box of breakfast cereal and wondered how well it would fit under the cabinet. It turns out that it fit perfectly. When we had four empty boxes, we slid two of them under the cabinets and pushed them toward the back, then slid two more in to abut them. That prevents Brandy from pushing in a toy from any direction.
The only problem was that the design on the two front boxes was visible, and it wasn’t contributing much to my living room decor. Luckily I already owned some tape that looked like wood grain. I had purchased it for some scenery for my theater group and had also found some uses for it around my house.
Once I covered the front of the boxes with the wood grain tape, they simply blended into my wood floor. Even my dog trainer did a double take the next time she came over.
This solution seems so obvious in retrospect, but we had to take some time to figure it out. I’m sure there are some household dilemmas in your house that can be solved with things you already own.
